


Former Archangel

by qwanderer



Series: Fallen!Gabe [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Self-Harm, welp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 01:42:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20381617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwanderer/pseuds/qwanderer
Summary: Flies can't leave a wounded creature well enough alone. If they smell blood, or rot? It's in their nature to investigate.





	Former Archangel

Beelzebub was looking idly out over the boiling lake, bored out of their mind, when an angel tumbled into it.

Well. That hadn’t happened in… millennia.

They blinked for a moment. They couldn’t have imagined it…? No. They wouldn’t have. Beelzebub’s daydreams tended to follow a few specific routes, and they had been idly toying with one that definitely didn’t involve anything to do with any angels falling.

Might have involved a few of the angels kneeling before them, but that was. Immaterial.

They considered their options. It was traditional to wait for a new demon to make their own way out of the lake, to let the confusion and pain of the landing continue as long as possible. And it could take a while, especially if the new form wasn’t one that could fly. But then, Beelzebub needed to know what had just happened, and they needed to know as soon as possible.

They could send someone else out on the lake to retrieve the newest demon. But they didn’t actually trust anyone else with this kind of situation. Holding back information, backstabbing, those were hellish traditions, too.

Fuck. They were going to have to go fish one of the asshole angels out of the lake themselves.

Beelzebub hauled a sturdy boat out to the edge of the sulfur pool, careful not to let any of the boiling nastiness splash them as they pushed off into the lake proper. They kept an eye out for anything moving in a way that didn’t resemble boiling.

Unfortunately, the spasming movements of the new demon blended in with the boiling. Fortunately, the new demon was also a bright white-pink color which did not. Beelzebub fished the demon out of the lake with their paddle, dumping the lump of translucent flesh into the bottom of the boat with a squelch. 

It was a sea nettle jellyfish, mostly white but with the barest hints of purple striping across its cape and a pink blush at the edges.

It reminded them of someone.

“...Gabriel?” they ventured, wrinkling their nose. 

The blob just… twitched.

Beelzebub turned away and focused on getting the boat back to shore. If the new demon wasn’t ready to talk, there was really no way to make them.

By the time they got the boat hauled up to the shore, their passenger was a shivering, human-shaped mass with jellyfish tentacles dangling damply from his hair. And yes, it was Gabriel.

“Need help?” Beelzebub asked him, and offered their hand, because it would save time and because they knew that Gabriel would be absolutely appalled at the idea of touching a demon and would only accept Beelzebub’s help if he had absolutely no other option.

Gabriel wobbled his way out of the boat on his own, first looking at Beelzebub’s hand with undisguised disgust and then with a sort of horrified temptation. 

“Well,” said Beelzebub. “Look who’s been punted down to join the rest of us. The Archangel Fucking Gabriel. Excuse me,  _ former _ Archangel. What happened, did they all finally realize how unbearable you are?”

“Beelzebub,” Gabriel said, still just sort of blinking around at the landscape in disorientation.

“You will address me as ‘Lord’ or ‘Prince,’” Beelzebub said. “We’re not equals now. You’re just a junior demon, have to work your way up from the bottom like the rest of us.”

“There’s been a mistake,” Gabriel stammered.

“Right,” Beelzebub drawled. “Of course.”

“I’m not a demon.”

They lifted a hand to prod at the jellyfish tendrils now sprouting from Gabriel’s head. “Then what’s this, the latest human fashion?”

Gabriel’s eyes were drawn down to the limp appendages, too heavy to be useful outside of water. “No,” he said, his fingers hovering above them. “No, nonono, that’s just some kind of lake creature… stuff that’s gotten on me.” He plucked one of them up off his shoulder, and yanked it from his head.

Despite everything Beelzebub had seen and done in their long, long lifetime, they winced, knowing what the result of that would be. 

Gabriel’s eyes widened and he gave a tiny, subdued full body shudder which Beelzebub nevertheless felt all through their own being. The tendril fell from Gabriel’s limp fingers. The lines around his eyes and mouth tightened, and he looked like he might be about to vomit.

“If you’re going to be sick,” Beelzebub told him, “do it anywhere but me or the lake. Those are two ways to get your vomit thrown right back at you, with prejudice.”

He nodded understanding, and then doubled over, retching onto the rocky shore. He breathed hard for a moment, then tentatively stood straight again, wiping his hand on his sleeve with a grimace.

“Are you done?” Beelzebub asked.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t do that again. We all tried that in the beginning. Never helps anything. Now come on. I know Lucifer’s got a perfect assignment for you.”

“I’m not a demon!” Gabriel protested.

"Oh, well in that case." Beelzebub rolled their eyes. "Come on. Whatever you are you’re in our custody now and it’s going to be torture, more than likely." 

The fresh demon just plodded after them, then, subdued.

Gabriel, Fallen. Beelzebub wondered what the world was coming to.

**Author's Note:**

> welp, I've got very little idea where this is going, so if any of y'all have something you'd like to see, I'll happily attempt to fit it in!
> 
> ps I am qwanderer on tumblr (and some other places too)


End file.
